The introduction of the GST has been the source of confusion over taxes in many different sectors, but salaried employees have largely remained unaffected. However, a tax authority's judgment in Kerala has triggered a speculation on how employer-to-employee services at workplace need to be taxed.

With GST swallowing up more than a dozen indirect taxes, only proposals for changes in direct taxes and customs duty, and any declarations of policy changes or new government schemes/programmes remain to be presented in the Budget.

If whispers are to be believed, the coming Budget will be Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's most populist one yet. He is widely expected to hike the personal income tax exemption limit-and some are optimistically predicting that the ceiling will be pushed up to Rs 5 lakh-so India waits with bated breath.

In its meeting on November 10, the GST Council relaxed filing norms by suspending GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 forms till March 2018. It said all businesses have to file only the simplified GSTR-3B for the July-March 2018 period.

It is easy to claim HRA exemption. One has to just submit rent receipts to the company. But if your claim comes under scrutiny, you will need proper proofs. It is important that you understand HRA deduction rules.